


The Morning Always Comes

by Glowsquid



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood Infirmary, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hospitals, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shadow Travel (Percy Jackson), is this tagging?, no this is patrick, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 13:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11486973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowsquid/pseuds/Glowsquid
Summary: Nico's a mess.But he's going to be better soon.Right?





	The Morning Always Comes

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to punchbag-mcshizzle, I hope you enjoy it. Again, you deserve more, but I hope you still enjoy this. Tell me what you thought!

Nico caught himself staring at the son of Apollo. His face looked gentle, as if he was in the midst of a pleasant dream, and his blond eyelashes fanned across his freckled cheeks in a way Nico couldn't help but find..... kind of cute. And the way his blond hair curled over his neck....  
Nico sensed danger. There was danger in the blackness and silence surrounding him, pressing in from all sides. Nico could feel claws and tongues and cold bodies pressing up against his own as he struggled to draw breath. He felt their voices hissing like steam in his ear, whispering on and on. "You're a freak," they hissed. "You've always been. Bianca couldn't stand you, this whole camp can't stand you. Come with us. Come into the shadows. There is no room for someone like you on earth, you belong in the dark."  
Nico tried to cover his ears, but his arms wouldn't move. He tried to scream, but he couldn't draw breath. His thoughts were an incoherent jumble of desperate, blubbering fear. His one coherent thought:

I don't want to die alone

Suddenly, he was waking up. 

He started, scrabbling at the mattress and frantically pushing himself upright. Almost immediately he realized he was lying on a bed in the Camp Half-Blood infirmary.

Still disoriented, he checked himself over. He felt cold, shivery, and slightly sick to his stomach - a lot like he had when he first shadow-traveled. There was an IV in his arm, dripping some unknown substance into his bloodstream. Nico couldn't remember what had happened to put him in this spot, all he remembered were the dreams.

He shuddered at the memory.

In an effort to put the chill of his nightmares behind him, Nico took quick stock of his surroundings.

The infirmary was built so that the sun lit up the main ward as it rose, probably symbolizing the healing rays of Apollo curing the afflictions of the invalids something like that. Presently, sunlight was streaming in through the gauzy curtains and casting shadows on the walls and floor, so Nico figured it was still pretty early in the morning.  
He looked to his right and noticed Will Solace was fast asleep in the chair next to him, head lolling against his shoulder. Nico felt a twinge of sympathy. Thay position looked terribly uncomfortable.

That was surprising. Even though he was only 15, Will was nothing if not a medical professional. It seemed unlike him to just randomly nap while on duty, especially when none of the other staff were around. It was pretty early, they probably wouldn't start showing up until later. For the time being, it looked like it was just him and Will.

Nico didn't know why that thought made him nervous.

Will suddenly took a deep breath, startling Nico out of his reverie. Embarrassed, he yanked his eyes back up to Will's face in time to watch his hazy blue eyes slowly blink open.

Will groaned, and grudgingly lifted his head up. He scrubbed a hand first down his face, then through his hair. He yawned painfully.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Rise and shine, sunshine man."

Will's eyebrows shot up as if he hadn't even remembered Nico was there at all.

"Hey," he said, "Good to see you conscious."

He arched his back with a satisfying pop, and Nico cursed himself for blushing when he noticed the way Will's shirt rode up, exposing the smooth, tan skin of his stomach. Dammit, his brain really did the most embarrassing things.

“Glad you’re awake.” His voice was still thick and gravelly from sleep. Great. Just another annoyingly attractive about Will that Nico couldn't help but notice."What time is it," he muttered as he riffled through the pockets of his scrubs.

Nico cleared his throat. "You're wearing a watch," he pointed out helpfully.

Will checked his wrist and announced it was 6:37.

Shuffling over to stand closer to the bed, he picked up Nico's hand, carefully rubbing his palm with the pad of his thumb. Startled, Nico jerked his hand.

"Sorry." Will said sheepishly, blushing slightly, "I got used to you being comatose. Just checking you're still solid."

Nico blinked in disbelief. "Solid? " he asked incredulously, "How long was I out for anyway? I don't remember how I even got here."

Will frowned and crossed his arms defiantly over his chest. His drowsy, relaxed manner disappeared."To make a long story short, you were passed out on the grass somewhere and a concerned citizen came and told us and we brought you in, but that isn’t the worst of it. When Sheldon and I were examining you - you know, making sure you weren't going to die or anything - we noticed that you were fading in and out of existence. Like, one minute you were fine, the next minute our hands would pass right through you like you were a hologram or something." He glared at Nico.

"You tried to shadow travel, didn't you?”

Nico was a bit taken aback. Yeah, he had tried to shadow travel, he remembered now. Frustrated after being prohibited from so much as thinking about using his underworld- related powers, he decided it had been long enough.

Nico realized that he had begun to get seriously annoyed at Will Solace. Two whole weeks had gone by, and whenever Nico so much as mentioned using his powers, here came Will Solace and his bossy "'I'm-a-medical-professional-and-you're-not" voice to shut him down. Well, Nico couldn't live like this forever. He was the Ghost King; someday he had to reclaim his rights as the Son of Hades.

He crossed his arms right back.

"Yeah. I did. Happy?" He shot Will an equally imposing glare.

Will dug the heels of his hands into his temples as if he was trying very hard to keep his head from rolling away.

"No, Nico," he explained, slowly and carefully, as if to a small child. "I'm not happy. What would make me happy," he continued, slowly lowering his hands, "would be for you to actually take this seriously instead of galavanting around like a baby, trying to do things that are way beyond you, that could get you killed, and that I expressly warned you not to do!"

"Well what do you want me to do, huh?" Nico demanded. "How am I supposed to be the Ghost King if I can't even connect with the underworld?" 

"You have no idea what’s going on, do you?” Will’s voice was tight with frustration. “You have no idea how weak you are. You know you almost died, right?” 

“Yeah, but that was weeks ago. It’s not that bad anymore.” Nico kept his eyes on his lap, almost like he was embarrassed. 

Will wasn’t the kind to get angry or lash out. Nevertheless, he found himself raising his voice. “Not that bad anymore my ass. Gods damn it Nico! When am I going to get through to you that you can’t use your powers, okay?

He expected Nico to react with anger, but he didn’t. Instead, his eyes stayed fixed on his hands as he anxiously wrung them in his lap, and Will’s anger dissipated. 

Nico was deeply afraid, Will could see that now. And Will thought he understood. The past few months, Apollo had been silent. Will was a competent healer, but without the help of his father's power it had been harder to treat the steady stream of injured campers that came in from scouting missions injured from ever-increasing numbers of monsters swarming the earth. It had been hard to stay focused on the task at hand without letting the fear of failure distract him.

Sighing deeply, Will looked out to the sunlight coming in through the windows. Even though it was just wishful dreaming, it was nice sometimes to pretend that the rays of sun coming in to the infirmary was his father reaching out, helping him, maybe even trying to tell him he was proud of his son. He allowed himself just a moment of this fantasy before looking back at Nico.

"Apollo's been silent for a while."

Nico looked confused with the sudden change of topic.

"He doesn't answer my prayers, Rachel hasn't gotten any new prophecies, and a lot of my previous healing methods are pretty much useless," he said. " Basically, I've fallen short. A lot. And when any mistake could make the difference between someone living and dying, well..." his voice faltered. "I guess you could say it's been kind of stressful."

Nico was still staring at his lap, but Will could tell he was listening, so he continued.

"Basically, Nico, I think I get you. I think you're feeling afraid that after all this your power will be so diminished you will lose some of your inherent value, and somehow everyone will reject you because you can’t use your powers.” 

No reaction from Nico

“You know that no one’s going to leave you because of that, right? You’re more than your powers.” 

Still nothing. 

"I'm gonna touch you, okay?"

Nico sighed a little. "Whatever you want."

Wills reached out a hand and gently gripped Nico's shoulder, speaking softly.

"Hey."

He waited for eye contact but received none.

"You're gonna be okay. You've got me, Jason, Hazel, the scary Roman one.... what's her name again?"

"You mean Reyna."

"Exactly! None of them - no. None of us are gonna let you do this all on your own, okay?"

This time, he was rewarded by eye contact. As Nico's face rose to meet his own, and Will found himself suddenly distracted by intense, unblinking, coffee-brown irises. He mentally shook himself off.

"We're gonna be here. And we might not be able to get your power back for you any faster, but until you do, you're gonna have the most goddamn persistent group of asses ever here to support you, okay?"

He gently ran his thumb over Nico's thin, wiry arm, and mentally begged for some sign of emotion, some proof he had gotten through to the guy. 

"You've got one thing right."

Will frowned. "And what is that?"

Nico cracked a cute, lopsided grin.

"You're a persistent ass, Solace."

Will rolled his eyes and unceremoniously dropped his arm away from Nico's shoulder.

"If you're well enough to insult me, I might as well declare you free to go."

Will took a moment to study Nico's face. The dark circles were still there, but he didn't look so.... anxious. He hoped that what he had said helped.

He doubted Nico would agree, but…

"Hug?" he asked, and spread his arms hopefully.

A brief shrug seemed to be all the consent Nico was going to offer, but Will took it gladly. He leaned forward, feeling the mattress shift underneath him as he carefully wrapped his arms around Nico's neck.

Nico didn't respond at first but eventually brought his hands up, patting awkwardly before resting hesitantly against Will's shoulders.

Will let his chin rest against Nico as he closed his eyes against the burning sun. One of his siblings from Apollo cabin would be around soon to relieve him, and as much as he needed sleep and food and possibly a chiropractor, he wasn't anxious to leave. It was nice, right here, with balmy sunbeams on his face and Nico's thin body in his arms.

He couldn't help but smile to himself. It might take a while - hell, it might take a long time - but Nico would get better. And Will planned on being by his side every step of the way.


End file.
